


Date Night Routine

by MadamRed



Series: 400-Follower Celebration (Tumblr) [7]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M, Failed Date, Fluff, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 14:02:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9184879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadamRed/pseuds/MadamRed
Summary: Writing prompts requested on Tumblr: “I immediately regret this decision” & “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to.”





	

_“I immediately regret this decision,”_ was the first of many texts Spencer Reid received from you that night. It was quickly followed by:

 _“What did I say I saw in him at that bar?”_  
_“Ugh, the guy has been talking about ‘the match’ for at least 20 minutes.”_  
_“I still don’t know what sport he’s referring to.”_  
_“I gave up trying to understand what he’s saying and opened the Pokémon Go app.”  
_ _“Speeeeence, this place is a Charmander magnet!!!”_

And then there was the one he had been waiting for the entire night:

_“Could you call me in about 10 minutes? I really need an excuse to leave.”_

Since he knew the restaurant you were at, instead of just calling you from his apartment like you had asked him to, he drove to the restaurant and parked around the corner to pick you up. _It’s a simple precaution,_ he thought. Who knew how the guy was going to react to you walking away mid-dinner?

Spencer could hear the conversation you were having with _him_ over the phone as he waited for you to exit the place, and his leg couldn’t stop jiggling.

‘No, please, that’s very kind of you, Steve, but I’ll just take a taxi,’ you told your date as you got up and gathered your things. Then you addressed Spencer again, ‘Auntie? You still there?’

‘Yes,’ the doctor answered in a high-pitched voice, and you had to stifle a laugh as you turned around.

‘Okay, I’ll be there in half an hour,’ you lowered your phone from your ear and once again said goodbye to Steve. ‘Thank you, again, it was... lovely but I really need to go. Family emergency.’

Spencer heard a chair scraping the floor and some ruffling, which was probably caused by _Steve_ getting up to hug you goodbye.

‘Thaaaank you, auntie!’ you muttered happily into your phone as you inhaled the cool air outside. It smelled like rain.

‘You’re welcome, darling,’ he used the same voice as before, and you laughed. He cleared his throat and told you he was there to pick you up.

‘Really?’ you raised a well-manicured eyebrow and looked for his beloved Volvo. Once you spotted it around the corner, you hung up and walked briskly to it, not wanting Steve to find you there. You climbed onto the passenger seat and hugged your friend. ‘Why, isn’t this thoughtful?’

‘You had already asked for a way out; I thought I could be your driver for the night,’ he shrugged, pretending he didn’t care as much as he did, and started the car.

‘Well, thank you, Spence,’ you sighed, the expectations for that night weighing heavily on your mind.

‘Wanna go to your place or mine?’ he asked as he turned the car around, knowing you didn’t like being alone after a failed date.

‘Mine. I want to change out of these clothes and shoes.’

The rest of the ride was spent in relative silence, except for a few curses from Spencer directed at careless drivers. There was a reason why he didn’t drive much.

Once you arrived and got changed, you came out of your room to find your friend rearranging the blankets and cushions from the couch on the floor.

‘Um, Spence?’ you moved towards him, slowly, as you finished putting on a big sweater.

‘I figured, since it’s cold, we could watch a movie inside a fort; you know, to stay warm,’ he turned around and stepped aside to show you the final product.

He had left the couch and the small, coffee table in the middle and had used an armchair on one side and a tower of books on the other to create the roof with the help of a few clothes pins to keep the blanket in place. For the floor, he had grabbed an extra fluffy blanket from your clean pile of clothes in your laundry room and had rearranged your many cushions.

‘Spencer...,’ you trailed off and looked up into his eyes, which showed you how excited and proud he was of his little creation. You walked towards him and hugged him tightly, getting a bit overwhelmed by his cologne. He always knew how to make you feel safe and cared for.

‘Get inside and choose a movie,’ he instructed you and gave you the remote.

‘What are you doing?’ you asked him as you grabbed another blanket from your room and climbed into the fort from the side.

He appeared a minute later with two steaming cups of tea and a multitude of snacks you recognised. You had bought them the day before while grocery shopping.

‘Scooch over a little,’ he told you as he left everything on the table and finally sat next to you. You covered his long legs with the blanket. ‘Thank you. I hope you don’t mind that I grabbed a few things from your cupboards. You had... quite a secret stash up there.’

‘Yeah, I bought it all yesterday actually,’ you confessed, shrinking a little as you added some sugar to your mug.

 _‘All_ of this?’ he couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t quite sure how to phrase his next question. ‘Were you...? I mean, did you already think that tonight...?’

‘I... don’t know. Maybe? I obviously had a feeling and I ignored it,’ you sighed, picked up your favourite chocolate bar and started eating it.

You turned on the TV as Spencer remained quiet. He usually did when you talked about your dates, whether you called him in the middle of it for help or told him what a disaster it had been the next day. He had warned you once or twice when he really disliked someone, but that was about it. One thing was for certain, though: whenever you called him, he was there in a heartbeat to help cheer you up.

What you were unaware of was that, this time, his thoughts were like a whirlwind, and that he was having a hard time not saying something about your decisions concerning men. Instead of telling you, he started reminiscing.

He first laid his eyes on you when you had started out at the BAU offices. After some years, you had slowly climbed the ladder and made it to the team. He had been delighted at the time, but then, once he realised his feelings were turning into something more, he had tried to ignore them, but to no avail.

As time went by, you developed a friendship with everyone, but, out of the entire team, you had the strongest bond with the genius thanks to your being closer in age. He was kind, funny and the most generous soul you had ever encountered. He was that one constant person you felt had been missing in your life.

He sighed, lost in his own world, just as you blindly scrolled through the movie options, not paying attention to anything in particular except for your own thoughts. You suddenly turned the TV off and threw the remote to your left side, frustrated with yourself, and startled Spencer.

‘(Y/n)?’

‘I’m just _angry,_ you know? Why can’t I get through a simple date, Spence?’ you turned around, your eyes already getting teary. ‘What is it about all these men that makes me not want to ever see them again or even make it to dessert?’

‘I-I...,’ he didn’t actually know. You, along with Rossi, were one of the most active in the team when it came to dating; yet, he couldn’t recall a time when you talked in detail about them, not even with the girls.

‘You know I haven’t been walked to my apartment door, or even the building’s entrance, in at least a year by any of my dates?’ you sniffled, refusing to let any tears fall. ‘I guess it would help if I didn’t bolt in the middle of it, huh?’ you added bitterly as an afterthought.

‘Th-The right man will come along and he will escort you home like a gentleman, I’m sure.’

‘How can you be so sure?’ you looked up and saw the hesitation in his eyes.

He wanted to tell you that the right man was sitting next to you in the fort he had built for you in your living room as he stared at your beautiful make-up-less face.

‘I just... am. Trust me, you’ll find him soon,’ or rather, _I hope_ _you’ll see_ me _soon._

‘I can’t help but feel a little bit apprehensive, I guess,’ you sighed as you leaned your head on his shoulder. He stiffened and you noticed. ‘Spence?’

You leaned forwards a little to catch his expression but only saw him smile at you before he opened his arms to you.

‘Come ‘ere,’ he invited you and you obliged, immediately engulfed by his scent again. The feeling of safety returned, along with an element of optimism. ‘How about I read something to you?’

‘Yes, please!’ you disentangled yourself from his arms and the blanket and went to your bookshelf. You grabbed your dog-eared copy of _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_ and settled back in Spencer’s warm embrace.

‘Of course,’ he laughed once he saw the cover. _‘Chapter One: Owl Post. Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways. For one thing, he...’_

Other people might have called you childish, but Spencer knew how much you loved the series, especially that one book, since you had two copies: the tattered one in his hands and a pristine, barely-read edition safe in your bookshelf. He smiled; he would read to you after any and every bad date you went on until he worked up the courage to tell you how he felt.

He had just got to the third chapter when your breathing started evening out. He continued for a little while and then closed the book and put it next to the forgotten mugs of tea. He looked down at your face. You had moved from resting your head against his shoulder to his lap and were now comfortably sleeping there.

He smiled again, and started caressing your hair. You stirred and buried your face in his thigh. He fell asleep sitting like that, with his head on the couch.

 

* * *

You woke up a few hours later due to the thunder outside. You sat up, stretched a little in the confined space and saw that it was raining heavily.

‘Spence?’ you touched his shoulder, but he did not move. ‘Spencer?’ you singsonged, ruffling his hair.

‘Mmm,’ was all he said.

You chuckled and then moved your hand to his face. You caressed his cheek with your thumb, enjoying how rough his skin felt from his five o’clock shadow. He smiled in his sleep. You figured he wasn’t going to wake up any time soon, so you pushed him a little and managed to get him lying down, _his_ head on your lap now.

You had been staring out of the window as you ran your hand through his hair for a while, when you felt him hugging your legs. You smiled down at the genius.

 _He’s probably dreaming and thinks I’m his pillow,_ you thought at first. But then it was your turn to stiffen when you felt something else happen. You were pretty sure he had kissed your leg as he murmured something and sighed. Granted, you were wearing pyjama pants but still, you had felt it.

‘Spence?’ you called him as you shook his shoulder lightly.

‘Mm,’ he said once more in response but finally opened his eyes and sat up, confused. ‘How did I get here?’

‘Here, as in my apartment, or here, as in my lap?’

‘Lap.’

‘When I woke up a while ago, I moved you thinking your neck would appreciate it in the morning.’

‘Right, thank you, then,’ he gave you a bright smile as he stretched.

You wanted to ask him. For some reason, your mind didn’t want to let go of the memory of his lips pressing against your leg and the rush it had given you, making your heart beat quickly.

‘Hey, Spence, what, um, what were you dreaming about?’

He stopped stretching his legs and looked over at you with wild eyes.

‘I- Well, I-I, nothing special,’ he said too fast for it to be convincing. ‘Did I... say something?’

‘You did, although I did not hear what it was,’ you answered truthfully.

He visibly relaxed. He had been dreaming of you, of course, but instead of being inside the fort, you had been lying on his bed as he held you tightly, kissing your stomach and telling you just how much he loved you.

‘You did kiss my leg, though,’ you said as nonchalantly as possible.

His eyes seemed to be about to pop out of his face as he apologised:

‘I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to! Dream-you’s skin looked so smoo-’ he stopped mid-sentence, realising what he had revealed.

‘Dream... me?’ you asked hesitantly as your heart went crazy inside your ribcage.

‘I- You know, you always look so- No, no, that’s not right. Let me start over. I-’

‘Spencer! What are you _really_ trying to say?’ your expression was serious as you searched his face for the truth.

‘I was dreaming, about you and me. We were together a-and I was telling you how much I... cared for you,’ it was enough that he was confessing that much of the dream. You were probably creeped out already without knowing the true extent of his feelings.

‘Oh,’ you said, lacking eloquence.

‘Yes, I’m sorry if-’

‘And, what were we doing in the dream?’ you asked, looking up at him, expectantly.

‘We, well, we were in my bedroom, and I kissed you good night before we just laid down under the covers and I hugged you,’ he knew his cheeks must’ve been red as a tomato.

‘And how _exactly_ did you kiss me?’ you leaned forwards, dropping your eyes to his lips.

He raised your chin with his hand and looked deeply into your eyes, waiting for permission. Once you nodded at him, he closed his eyes, not ready to look at your repulsed expression once you inevitably backed away from him.

You met him halfway through, hoping to erase the frown that had knitted its way into his face, and your lips started moving out of their own accord. It was effortless. The kiss set your body on fire, and you had the impending need to touch him, somewhere, anywhere.

You followed your instincts and broke the contact just to move closer to him. You stared at his half-lidded eyes and smirked.

‘Something like that?’ you asked him as you put your hand on his cheek.

‘Not quite,’ he murmured against your lips before he dived in again, feeling confident thanks to your enthusiastic response.

You reciprocated the kiss, although this time it was slower, more sensual and left your lips tingling when you felt his tongue asking for entrance. You allowed him in and automatically melted. You then moved your hand from his cheek to his hair, until it finally landed on the back of his neck, unconsciously bringing him closer to you.

As you started falling backwards, he moved the hand which had been attached to your waist to the floor, so that he wouldn’t crush you.

‘More. Like. This,’ he told you playfully between kisses.

You smiled, feeling at ease with this new-found side of him. You definitely liked his confidence.

‘Spencer,’ you called his name after a few minutes of lazily-exchanged kisses.

‘Yes?’ he kissed your nose.

It was such an intimate, tender gesture, your heart melted all over again.

‘Would you like to have dinner with me tomorrow?’

‘I would love to,’ he gave you a toothy smile, the one that caused his eyes to scrunch up, and pecked you on the lips before his arm gave out and he collapsed next to you with a humph.

You couldn’t help but smile, too, as you turned to meet his excited eyes. In that moment, you promised yourself you would make it to dessert this time around. After all, your knight in shining armour, the one that was always there to save you from awkward dates, was going to be sitting right in front of you.


End file.
